mission call, Christmas

It's been and interesting couple of weeks. David finally received his mission call on the 10th of Dec. He is going to the England Burningham Mission. He reports to the MTC in England on the 12th of March. He is very excited to go. The neat thing is that his 1st cousin Christopher Stoddard is going to the same mission on the exact same day. They both fly out on the 11th of March. We went mission shopping a week ago today. Stuff costs a lot more than when I went in 1977 or even when Cameron went in 2001. We just went to one store, Peterson's in Boise which was nice because they had everything and we did not chase all over like we did with Cameron. The suits were half off because of the end of year close outs, same with the shoes which they actually had because David has a small foot. A lot of his stuff needs tailored because of his size.

Dawna and I took the day off before Christmas eve to make a fast trip to Utah to go to Cami's Wedding and Reception in Utah. We left at 6 am and made it to the Institute building where everything was taking place at 12:30 pm. We were the first ones there. We rested and read for a while till family started showing up. Rochell had Kasarah cut Dawna's hair for a Christmas gift so her hair is now short. It looks really nice. The wedding was nice with a luncheon following and the the reception started at 5:30. When it was over we stayed at Kris's. The next day we headed home with a stop in Boise to go shopping and then went to Patterson's for a Christmas eve dinner that Lesley and Cameron were putting on. It was very good and we really enjoyed visiting with the Patterson's and holding Alexis. David came over after work and we enjoyed a movie.

Christmas morning Dawna called work and they put her on call. So we went back to bed and slept till David couldn't take it any more and woke us up. So we got up and unwrapped gifts. It was a good Christmas. We enjoyed the gifts and listening to Christmas music. Dawna and I talked to all of our kids who were away from home this year. About 10:00 David and I took Grandpa and Grandma to McCall to JoAnn and Terry's home. We got there about 12:30. We had lunch about 1:30. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. David and I rode snowmobile for a few minutes before we headed back. We got home about 6:30 and Dawna told us moki had took off. He was outside and the neighbors started shooting skeet. Dawna had looked for him for several hours but had no luck. David looked for a few minutes but couldn't find him. This morning the Vet clinic called and told us that Annette Hart who David works with at M&W had him. So he is back home. Today we are just taking it easy. This evening there is Mark and June Hartley's 60th Wedding Aniversery and also Cami and Taylors wedding reception.

I finally got around to uploading some pictures we took on thanksgiving day. As you can tell Alexis was was the star attraction. She is really easy going and will even let me hold her for more than 30 seconds. Thanksgiving was great. We missed our family that was not here. We just don't seem complete unless everyone is here. I brined and then smoked a turkey breast and also tried to smoke a ham shank. The turkey turned out great and was all gone by Sat. It was was just as good cold as it was hot. I finished the ham off this last weekend in some ham and bean soup that turned out quite good. We watched too much football (is that possible?), ate too much food, and played to few games. The weather was clear but cold so we didn't do much outside. David and I did build Grandpa and Grandma a new set of steps for the back door that has shorter risers. We are trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We are waiting for David's Mission call. It should show up tomorrow on Tuesday. Bishop checked and it was sent out on Friday. We will let you know as quick as we know.

Just a note to update whats been going on. The kidney stones have passed. Fall work is just about all done. There is still some corn to be harvested but most all the beets are harvested. Onion sheds are going strong. You can hear the fans from across town all night long. David has had the flu twice or the same flu with a respite in between being sick. He has got his wisdom teeth out and should have his mission papers in the next Sunday.

We have decided to stay home for Thanksgiving. Laura and Bobby will be here. David and Mom both have the day off. Lesley has to work so Cameron will come over with Alexis. I will smoke a turkey and hopefully watch some football. We will go down to Utah in December to go to Camie's wedding.

Grandpa fell today. The wind was blowing really hard and blew him over. He had to get stitches in his hand and chin, and has one heck of a black eye. David was home on break and between the two of us we got him to the house and then when I looked at his hand I knew he needed stitches. Grandma took him down to the clinic with David and I following to help get him inside. Gail cleaned him up and he got stitched up and then came home. David got off work long enough to help get him in the house. He will be awful sore for a few days.

I'm home today from work so I decided to post a few more pictures from our trip to Wendy's. The last week the weather has went from raining to a beautiful weekend. Yesterday I went home by way of the hospital with kidney stones. I've always knew that they hurt and know I know. They hurt worse than when I had Cancer. Hopefully I'll be back to work tomorrow. The pictures here are from the trip, if you look close you can see the climbers. The picture of David with Cutler is after we walked around the tower.

I was checking the blogs and realized I had not posted for 2 months. I got lazy. A lot has happened since August 9th. August we didn't really go anywhere or do anything, Lesley and Cameron and Alexis came over on a few of the Saturdays. In September we went to Wendy's. We drove out on a Wednesday, On Thursday Dawna and Wendy canned some tomatoes while David and I played with Shalon and Cutler, and got ready to go to South Dakota. Wes's parents kindly let Wes and Wendy borrow their van so we could all travel together. Friday morning we left and drove to Gillette where we had lunch. Then we drove to Devils Tower. We walked around the base of the tower and watched some climbers climbing the south side. Shalon walked most of the way and Wendy and David packed Cutler. He fell asleep before we finished. Wes carried Shalon when she was to tired to walk. Then we got back in the van and drove to Rapid City to a motel that had a water park attached to it. We had a lot of fun at the water park. Wendy has most of the pictures because I didn't take my camera. The picture that I have posted was taken the next morning as we were leaving. After the water park we went out to eat at Perkins. By that time Cutler had just about had all the fun the He could handle, So Wendy and Wes didn't get to enjoy a relaxed meal. The next morning We went to Mount Rushmore, ate lunch in Keystone, which is right by Mount Rushmore and then went to Reptile Gardens. Then the drive back to Sheridan which we got back about 9:30 on Saturday. Thank you Wes for doing all the driving. We came back on Sunday arriving home about 9:00 on Sunday night. It was a short trip but We had a lot of fun. Thank you Wes and Wendy for the great trip. Here are a few of the pictures in no particular order.
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McCall Reunion

I've had these pictures for a while and though I posted 1 last blog here are some more. The family picture was take by Bruce Tracy. He took a lot of pictures and works as a photographer. We had a lot of fun and in the evenings Joel asked Mom and Dad questions about their life's. It was really neat hearing the stories of youth and early married life. We played games, went on walks, went to McCall on Friday to eat by the lake. We didn't really want to go home to the plus 100 degree heat.

Our Bishopric got changed today, Bishop Johnson took a job in Germany being principle at a school on one the military bases. So today we got a new Bishop which is Gaylen Spear, 1st Counselor is Lee Long and 2nd is Stoney Schulthies. I've been Gaylen's home teacher for the last few years I guess now that I'll have to go more often. David started on his mission papers tonight. Ross

Time flies and I'm not even haveing all that much fun. Wendy keeps after me that I still need to blog the rest of our trip so I'll post some more pictures of the last of the trip at Andrew and Jana's home, Some pictures of Soren and Sydney, Pictures at Wendy's and some pictures of our reunion at McCall. Since we have got home life has been pretty busy. We have went to Boise several times to see Alexis. I am working the late shift and Saturday for the 2nd time in three weeks to help cover for some other employee's time off. But when this week is done I won't work another Saturday for 6 weeks. Dawna and I did go to the fair last Wed. We didn't stay to long because we had taken some of the young women over. We did eat fair food and had a good time while we were there. Ross

Well this is not the second part of the trip or even the sibling reunion, For those of you that don't know Lesley had some complications with her pregnancy so they started Her 6 weeks early. Lesley and Cameron were blessed with a cute 4lb 12 ounce, 19 inches long baby girl. I got to hold Her for about 20 minutes tonight. I have never held a baby that small before. Lesley is doing fine, Alexis will be in the nicu for a few more days for observation. I have a few pictures, hopefully Cameron will post more.

This last week has been a lot of fun. We left July 3 to go to Jana and Andrews'. We drove to Cheyenne Wy. that day going about 780 miles. David said he had all the car time he needed, little did he know what was to come. The next day we traveled to Missouri, We stopped at the Liberty Jail visitors center, and then went to go to Independence to see the temple lot but when we got there they had the streets blocked off for the evening fireworks show. We then plugged in Jana's address into gps and headed for Columbia. We got to Jana's at about 9:45 there time. We had traveled another 760 miles that day.

We Stayed Sunday with Jana, Andrew, and Sydney went to Church with them and just enjoyed the day of not driving. Jana made Dawna and I a birthday cake since my birthday was the 3rd and Dawna's was on the 8th.

Monday Dawna, David and I left to go to Nauvoo. We cut across Missouri seeing a lot of country, We went through Mexico, Palmyra, and several other towns in Missouri. We got to Nauvoo and took both the carriage ride and wagon ride to see the historical parts of old Nauvoo. Then we ate lunch, walked around the Nauvoo temple. We went to see the cultural hall, John Brownings' gun shop, Scoville bakery, Stoddards tinsmith, and the Drugstore. We went to the Comunity of Christ tour of the mansion house and Joseph Smith home bought was to late for the last tour. We walked around them and just saw them from the outside. We them went to the records house and down loaded a cd of all the family names that Dawna and I could remember. Last of all we went the cemetery to see the grave of Edmund Durfee.

We stayed in Keokuk that night resting our tired feet. The next day we went down to the Mississippi river to see a old river boat museum. Then we watched a tug and its tow go through the lock. Keokuk has an observation deck built on top of a railroad bridge to overlook the river and locks.

We have done a lot more but I'll blog it later

Wow, more than a month has gone by since the last post. Time just goes by. I keep thinking I'll have some new pictures but I haven't taken many lately. Since the last post David and I have poured a new sidewalk, Mom has gone to girls camp and the weeds just keep growing in the garden. Memorial Day weekend had David and I setting up forms and mixing cement. We poured half of it on Saturday and the rest of it on Monday. We were both pretty tired when it was done. The next weekend I got some new outdoor lights to light the walk at night.

I went up a week ago last Monday to help set up the tents for girls camp, I drove up the motor home so Dawna would have a place to sleep and so they would have a refrigerator for some of the food. Just as we got ready to leave a bad thunderstorm hit around mitchell butte. The road by the siphon got one lane washed out and there were rocks all over but by the time we got to the bridge the storm had passed. It hadn't hit camp hycliffs at all. Stoney and Maria Schulthies, Weston and Lori Schulthies, Kevin and Maria Draper, Penny Elsworth and Jan Wilcox went to help set up. With that much help it went up really fast. Dawna went up the next day and helped take the girls up and I went up Tuesday evening to see if I could help out. Penny had taken Jan Wilcox home because of abdominal pain. Turn out later that it was appendicitis and she had surgery later that night. Girls camp went pretty good and Dawna and all the girls and leaders packed up and got home on Thursday. She went back to work on Friday. David and I packed the tents and put all the equipment up last Saturday.

This week we have been slowly getting ready to go to Missouri. Today I changed oil in the car then found oil in the engine coolant. Found out the intake gasket is blown and will need replaced before the trip. Luckily I found it before we left. K and K and troops came over tonight for some homemade Ice Cream. We had a good time out on the front lawn enjoying the evening with there family and Grandpa and Grandma.

It has been a long week that went by very fast. Last Monday and Tuesday I rode down to Utah to attend Aunt Louisa's funeral with Doug, Margie and Vernina. We really enjoyed the trip down and back for the time we had to visit. Even though we live fairly close we don't get together as often as we should. We stayed with Dan and Connie Porter. They are as wonderful as ever and we enjoyed the time spent with them. The viewing and funeral was really special with the opportunity to see so many of the Porter family and to celebrate Aunt Louisa's life. The Porters are always great to visit with and always make you feel at home. I miss the reunions we used to have every couple of years we used to have with them. Hopefully it won't take another funeral to get together again.

This last weekend was David's graduation from High School. Grandpa and Grandpa Evans came up from Utah and Laura and Bobby came home from college. Saturday Carla and Merle and their children that are home came over along with the other quests and we grilled up some burgers and visited. Saturday evening Laura and Dawna worked on the salads and cookies for the after graduation party. I had smoked about 25lbs of pork butt earlier in the week. Sunday we went to church and then went ran down to the school for graduation. I didn't think that a graduation could be any shorter than Laura's but David's was shorter by 5 minutes only lasting for 35 minutes. After graduation David and I went to Iversons and then out to Morinaka's before going out to Mitchells and helping to set up for the party for Kevin Beck, Dillion Mitchell, and David. We started a 4 and didn't get done till about 7:30. We had a lot of fun and would like to thank all for coming. The only regret we have is that we couldn't go to all the parties. This group of boys I had when they were 12 and 13 year old scouts and I've always considered them my boys. I've found out that just about everyone that teaches or works with them feels the same way. David will work at M&W till late fall and then hopes to serve a church mission. We are glad he will be here for a few more months.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all Mothers both present and future. It seems like most blogs are about our children or grandchildren but, it wouldn't happen if not for their Mothers. I just like to thank my mother for all she has done for me throughout the years, Also thank my wife for the great mother she is to our children. Our kids are who they are because of the time and teachings that Dawna spent with them. I love our grandchildren and am thankful for my daughters and daughter in law who are so great in doing what they do.

Week in review, this has been a busy week, it seems as if May just got started and if is almost half over. The first of the week it still was very wet from all the rain we got last weekend. I did a little work in the garden and cleaned up the motorcycle. Thursday morning Dawna and I left at 7:30 am to drive to Newburg Or. to attend Nyssa's High School Choir performance at the state competition. It is just over a 6 hour drive to get there. We got there in time to see several choirs perform along with Nyssa. Nyssa had a great performance. They placed 5th. David said in the sight reading that they messed up. Nyssa was the Highest placed public school. All the rest of the schools that placed were private schools. On the way home we missed one of the interchanges in Portland and ended up circling on the the interstate in rush hour (?) traffic for about and hour and half. We were sure glad to get past Troutdale and out of the heavy traffic. We made it home about midnight. Was it worth 13 hours of driving for a 15 min performance? We thought it was. I would have some pictures but I forgot my camera.

Aunt Louisa, who was Dad's older Sister passed away on Friday. She was a really great person. I always thought it was a special treat when I got to visit Her and Uncle Ray. She had a great sense of humor and I will always remember Her laughter. I will ride down to Utah with Margie and Doug to go to the funeral this coming week. This next week will be busy with the trip and trying to get everything done for David's graduation. Our front sidewalk is no longer the moat but I don't think that I will get it poured by next weekend before we have company. It may be a temporary boardwalk for the next week or two. Such is life.

I decided to take some picture around the house to show some of the projects we are doing. David chipped out all the old sidewalk that had come apart. We got all the old concrete out and then it rained so now we have a moat. Hopefully it will dry out soon so we can form it. Next to the suburban is what little garden we have planted. Hot caps were a little expensive so I only bought 6. I have tomatoes under 4 of them and peppers under the other 2. The radishes and the peas are up and I have some cucumbers planted and some transplanted. The is a row of wave petunias by the lawn. In the one picture you can see the place out just due west of the house. hopefully we will have fence up here in a few months. We are enjoying the spring and seeing the flowers coming out and all the grass greening up. David has mowed the lawn twice and as soon as it dries out enough it needs mowed again.

trip to utah

Last Thursday Dawna and I took old blue (1987 suburban) to go to Utah. We were going to visit some of Dawna's family and stop in Payson to pick up a gun safe for a customer at work. He was going to pay for us going down to pick up the safe and still save quite a bit by not having it shipped by truck. We were in a hurry to leave and did not prepare to well to go. Every thing was going fine although we were a little later than we wanted to be. We don't drive the suburban as fast as the buick because above 65 it really gets thirsty. We got just about to Ogden and decided to spend the night there rather than pulling in at Dawna's sister at midnight. Hardly no sooner had we decided to do this and the suburban died. No hicup, no warning just dead. Luckily we was able to make the offramp and coasted down to a patch of gravel beside the offramp. There was a truckstop nearby and We walked over and bought a flashlight because we didn't have one. I pulled the air filter and checked while Dawna cranked over the engine and sure enough there was no fuel coming out of the injectors. We grabbed our bags and walked about 400 yard over to the motel which we noticed was right beside the truck stop and got a room for the night. I called the police dispatcher and told Her where the suburban was at and she said she would have an officer check it out. Later a Utah state patrolman called and said it was fine where it was parked for 48 hours. The next morning I got up at sunup and pulled the fuel filter hoping that it was the problem. No luck. We got a hold of a repair shop and he sent a wrecker to pick us up. The only problem was that he took 3 hours to get there. Once the car was towed though the repair shop was very fast on completing the repairs and after a good chunk of change and a new fuel pump we were on our way. Dawna and I had to take an extra day off work because now we couldn't pick up the safe until Monday. We did get to see more of Dawna's family than we probably would not got by staying the extra day. All said and done though We are glad we are home tonight.

Dawna took some pictures of David last week because we needed one for Senior recognition night. This is one with his new guitar he got for Christmas.

The weather here has been great this week. We have enjoyed working in both our and Grandma's yards. Yesterday David tilled up the flower bed/garden. Dawna and I have tried to start a few dozen petunias indoors so we don't have to buy so many. I think so far that with the cost of the starter trays and seed and whatever it is probably going to be about a wash on the cost. We are going to try to have a little bit bigger garden this year and can and freeze more. We'll see what happens.

We've been home for a little over a week from Wes and Wendy's and Laura and Bobby. We are also in Grandchild withdrawal. We had a lot of fun playing and reading to Shalon and holding Cutler. We just don't see them often enough. Everything was fine here at home. David kept the house reasonably clean and moki was more than happy to see Dawna. Grandma and Grandpa Durfee are doing better and they even went to church on Sunday. Work is still work but Dawna and I are grateful for our jobs in this economy. Here is a picture Wendy took of Cutler and Me. I didn't hold Cutler to much because I had a slight cold most of the week.

Here are some more pictures. We are having a lot of fun baby sitting. Shalon has been a lot of fun and Cutler is a cute little guy. We got this jacket from a lady Dawna works with at the Hospital that she bought some boys baby clothes. This was suppose to be a new born jacket but it fits Shalon just fine.